Ratcliffe, Donald W. — Steinway & Sons

Chronicle Books, 1989 Cloth, with dust jacket. 204 pages. Text in English. Spine of dust jacket slightly faded, otherwise nearly as new. This lavishly illustrated book tells the remarkable story of the Steinway company and its founding family. Heinrich Steinweg emigrated to America at the age of fifty-three with his large and talented family and founded Steinway & Sons, which was to become the builder of premium pianos in America. Ronald Ratcliffe has spent ten years researching the Steinway story. His fascinating text, supplemented with over 100 color and duotone photographs, documents the history of the piano in America, where the technical innovations of successive Steinway family members set the standards for the modern piano. He reveals as well the amazing business and marketing sense that characterized the Steinway company from the beginning, bringing it financial success and worldwide acclaim for its instruments. There are photographs of the famous pianists who promoted Steinway pianos: Anton Rubinstein, Ignacy Paderewski, Josef Hofmann, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arthur Rubinstein, and Vladimir Horowitz. There are also photographs and drawings of the most flamboyant customized piano cases, for such clients as Liberace. This is the complete book on the Steinway piano and the only book to be authorized by the Steinway company.